‘Royal’ baby fever – of the feathered variety - has sweeped SEA LIFE Melbourne with the arrival of three King penguin chicks.

Showing that good things come in threes, a trio of King penguin chicks hatched at the aquarium throughout the month of February and are the first chicks to be welcomed in 2018.

The first chick arrived on 3 February, weighing 214 grams and is being cared for by King penguins, Skipper and Sebastian. Less than a week later on 7 February, a second chick was welcomed into the world by penguin parents Matilda and Burger after weighing in at 196 grams.

On 11 February, a third penguin playmate arrived who tipped the scales at 222grams and has been taken under the wing of King penguins, Ernie and Hudson.

SEA LIFE Melbourne’s bird keepers have plenty of reasons to rejoice the new chicks who are quickly finding their wings with the help of their parents.

“We’re very excited to celebrate the arrival of our three gorgeous penguin chicks – whose arrivals also mark our sixth successive breeding season at SEA LIFE Melbourne. The chicks are thriving under the care of their proud penguin parents and continuing to grow bigger and stronger by the day,” said Sarina Walsh, Bird Manager at SEA LIFE Melbourne.

All three chicks went on the scales today at SEA LIFE Melbourne in a weekly health check-up – with all three steadily and healthily gaining weight – ‘Chick one’ now weighs 2.7kg, ‘chick two’ weighs 1.7kg and ‘chick three’ weighs 1.9kg.

King penguins are renowned for being the most dedicated parents in the penguin family with both parents sharing the rearing duties. The three chicks will remain under the care of the adult Kings until they moult into their waterproof layer of feathers around the age of 10-13 months old.

King penguins have one of the longest breeding cycles in the world with the ritual of courtship, egg laying and rearing taking up to 16 months. As a result, King penguins typically breed two out of three years and between the months of November and April.

SEA LIFE Melbourne’s bird keepers now face the age-old parenting challenge of deciding on the names of the three chicks.

 

 

Help name our baby King Penguin chicks!

We're so excited to welcome our three little ones into our SEA LIFE Family, however we need your help to give them names!

Click the button below to enter for your chance to name one of our baby penguin chicks!